One of the 17 bridges in McCourtie Park in Somerset Township, Mich. All of the bridges are made out of cement but made to look like petrified wooden logs and planks and ropes / Somerset Township photo

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

THAT’S A LOT OF BRIDGES. Indeed. All are made out of cement but made to look like petrified wooden logs and planks and ropes.

IN A WORD, WHY? The park in Somerset Township, Hillsdale County, was once the 42-acre estate of local cement magnate W.H.L. McCourtie. In the early 1930s, he hired two Mexican artisans, George Cardoso and Ralph Carona, to make the landscape accents to cross the stream that cut through his property. McCourtie died in 1933 and, after several owners, the township bought the site in 1987 and transformed it into a park.

ARE THE BRIDGES THE ONLY THING THAT WILL CATCH MY EYE? No. Check out the concrete chimneys that were sculpted to look like trees. They were for the underground heating system McCourtie needed for the subterranean entertainment area he’d built into the side of a hill there — a tavern-style main room with a paneled bar, beamed ceilings and a fieldstone fireplace. Somerset Township is working to restore what has been described as an “apartment rathskeller.”

WHY IS THIS SIGNIFICANT? McCourtie Park is on the National Register of Historic Places and, according to its listing on the state rolls, “The McCourtie Estate encompasses what is believed to be one of the largest concentrations of Mexican rustic folk art in the Midwest and possibly in the United States.”

WHERE EXACTLY IS THE PARK? It’s at U.S.-12 and South Jackson Road.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO? McCourtie Park also features a baseball diamond, tennis courts, picnic areas and, sitting on the site of the old manse, a pavilion. The bridges, though, are a popular spot for photo shoots, according to Deb Spicer, the township clerk.